This book explores the region of Samnium in central Italy, where a rich blend of historical, literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological evidence supports a fresh perspective on the ...
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This book explores the region of Samnium in central Italy, where a rich blend of historical, literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological evidence supports a fresh perspective on the complexity and dynamism of a part of the ancient Mediterranean that is normally regarded as marginal. This volume presents new ways of looking at ancient Italian communities that did not leave written accounts about themselves but played a key role in the development of early Rome, first as staunch opponents and later as key allies. It combines texts and archaeology to form a new understanding of the ancient inhabitants of Samnium during the last six centuries BC, how they constructed their identity, how they developed unique forms of social and political organization, and how they became entangled with Rome’s expanding power and the impact that this had on their daily lives.Less

Ancient Samnium : Settlement, Culture, and Identity between History and Archaeology

Rafael Scopacasa

Published in print: 2015-06-25

This book explores the region of Samnium in central Italy, where a rich blend of historical, literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological evidence supports a fresh perspective on the complexity and dynamism of a part of the ancient Mediterranean that is normally regarded as marginal. This volume presents new ways of looking at ancient Italian communities that did not leave written accounts about themselves but played a key role in the development of early Rome, first as staunch opponents and later as key allies. It combines texts and archaeology to form a new understanding of the ancient inhabitants of Samnium during the last six centuries BC, how they constructed their identity, how they developed unique forms of social and political organization, and how they became entangled with Rome’s expanding power and the impact that this had on their daily lives.

This book provides a survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the sixth century BCE, through its ascendance in the first millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the ...
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This book provides a survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the sixth century BCE, through its ascendance in the first millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-second millennium CE. Weaving together studies of archaeological remains, architecture, iconography, inscriptions, and Buddhist historical sources, this book uncovers the quotidian concerns and practices of Buddhist monks and nuns (the sangha), and their lay adherents. At the heart of Indian Buddhism lies a persistent social contradiction between the desire for individual asceticism versus the need to maintain a coherent community of Buddhists. Before the early first millennium CE, the sangha relied heavily on the patronage of kings, guilds, and ordinary Buddhists to support themselves. During this period, the sangha emphasized the communal elements of Buddhism as they sought to establish themselves as the leaders of a coherent religious order. By the mid-first millennium CE, Buddhist monasteries had become powerful political and economic institutions with extensive landholdings and wealth. This new economic self-sufficiency allowed the sangha to limit their day-to-day interaction with the laity and begin to more fully satisfy their ascetic desires for the first time. This withdrawal from regular interaction with the laity led to the collapse of Buddhism in India in the early to mid-second millennium CE.Less

An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism

Lars Fogelin

Published in print: 2015-04-01

This book provides a survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the sixth century BCE, through its ascendance in the first millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-second millennium CE. Weaving together studies of archaeological remains, architecture, iconography, inscriptions, and Buddhist historical sources, this book uncovers the quotidian concerns and practices of Buddhist monks and nuns (the sangha), and their lay adherents. At the heart of Indian Buddhism lies a persistent social contradiction between the desire for individual asceticism versus the need to maintain a coherent community of Buddhists. Before the early first millennium CE, the sangha relied heavily on the patronage of kings, guilds, and ordinary Buddhists to support themselves. During this period, the sangha emphasized the communal elements of Buddhism as they sought to establish themselves as the leaders of a coherent religious order. By the mid-first millennium CE, Buddhist monasteries had become powerful political and economic institutions with extensive landholdings and wealth. This new economic self-sufficiency allowed the sangha to limit their day-to-day interaction with the laity and begin to more fully satisfy their ascetic desires for the first time. This withdrawal from regular interaction with the laity led to the collapse of Buddhism in India in the early to mid-second millennium CE.

The practice of reading, recording, and thinking about inscriptions is common to both the modern and ancient worlds. From the archaic period onwards, ancient literary authors working within a range ...
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The practice of reading, recording, and thinking about inscriptions is common to both the modern and ancient worlds. From the archaic period onwards, ancient literary authors working within a range of genres discussed and quoted a range of inscriptions (dedications, archives, legislation, funerary inscriptions) as ornamental devices, as alternative voices to that of the narrator, to display scholarship, to make points about history, politics, individual morality and piety, and even to express moral views about the nature of epigraphy. This volume is inspired and informed by the belief that modern scholarship can attain a deeper understanding of inscriptions by exploring both the deployment of ancient documents by literary authors and the intertexts and interplay between inscriptions and other literary genres. The volume aims to unleash, for the first time, the great potential in thinking about epigraphy through the eyes of its ancient readers. The primary interest of this volume is in the deployment, paraphrase, citation, verbatim reproduction, imitation, and invention of inscriptions in literary texts. It sets out with several aims: to explore the ways in which the ancient literary record adds to our understanding of how inscriptions were read, interpreted, and perceived in antiquity; to identify the fits and non-fits between ancient and modern approaches to epigraphy; to assess the themes of complementarity and competition between lapidary and literary performance; and to analyse the relationship between habits of epigraphical production and their reception in literature.Less

Inscriptions and their Uses in Greek and Latin Literature

Published in print: 2013-09-26

The practice of reading, recording, and thinking about inscriptions is common to both the modern and ancient worlds. From the archaic period onwards, ancient literary authors working within a range of genres discussed and quoted a range of inscriptions (dedications, archives, legislation, funerary inscriptions) as ornamental devices, as alternative voices to that of the narrator, to display scholarship, to make points about history, politics, individual morality and piety, and even to express moral views about the nature of epigraphy. This volume is inspired and informed by the belief that modern scholarship can attain a deeper understanding of inscriptions by exploring both the deployment of ancient documents by literary authors and the intertexts and interplay between inscriptions and other literary genres. The volume aims to unleash, for the first time, the great potential in thinking about epigraphy through the eyes of its ancient readers. The primary interest of this volume is in the deployment, paraphrase, citation, verbatim reproduction, imitation, and invention of inscriptions in literary texts. It sets out with several aims: to explore the ways in which the ancient literary record adds to our understanding of how inscriptions were read, interpreted, and perceived in antiquity; to identify the fits and non-fits between ancient and modern approaches to epigraphy; to assess the themes of complementarity and competition between lapidary and literary performance; and to analyse the relationship between habits of epigraphical production and their reception in literature.

This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD ...
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This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer Empire capital at Angkor, and ranging from the Near East to South America. Previous enquiries have stressed the possible multiple and internal causes of collapse, such overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, warfare, and poor leadership and decision-making. In contrast, Megadrought and Collapse presents case studies of nine major episodes of societal collapse in which megadrought was the major and independent cause of societal collapse. In each case the most recent paleoclimatic evidence for megadroughts, multiple decades to multiple centuries in duration, is presented alongside the archaeological records for synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from paleoclimate proxy sources (lake, marine, and glacial cores; speleothems, or cave stalagmites; and tree-rings) and are explained by researchers directly engaged in their analysis. Researchers directly responsible for them discuss the relevant current archaeological records. Two arguments are developed through these case studies. The first is that societal collapse in different time periods and regions and at levels of social complexity ranging from simple foragers to complex empires would not have occurred without megadrought. The second is that similar responses to megadrought extend across these historical episodes: societal collapse in the face of insurmountable climate change, abandonment of settlements and regions, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural landscapes. As we confront megadrought today, and in the likely future, Megadrought and Collapse brings together the latest contributions to our understanding of past societal responses to the crisis on an equally global and diverse scale.Less

Megadrought and Collapse : From Early Agriculture to Angkor

Published in print: 2017-11-30

This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer Empire capital at Angkor, and ranging from the Near East to South America. Previous enquiries have stressed the possible multiple and internal causes of collapse, such overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, warfare, and poor leadership and decision-making. In contrast, Megadrought and Collapse presents case studies of nine major episodes of societal collapse in which megadrought was the major and independent cause of societal collapse. In each case the most recent paleoclimatic evidence for megadroughts, multiple decades to multiple centuries in duration, is presented alongside the archaeological records for synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from paleoclimate proxy sources (lake, marine, and glacial cores; speleothems, or cave stalagmites; and tree-rings) and are explained by researchers directly engaged in their analysis. Researchers directly responsible for them discuss the relevant current archaeological records. Two arguments are developed through these case studies. The first is that societal collapse in different time periods and regions and at levels of social complexity ranging from simple foragers to complex empires would not have occurred without megadrought. The second is that similar responses to megadrought extend across these historical episodes: societal collapse in the face of insurmountable climate change, abandonment of settlements and regions, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural landscapes. As we confront megadrought today, and in the likely future, Megadrought and Collapse brings together the latest contributions to our understanding of past societal responses to the crisis on an equally global and diverse scale.

The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a ...
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The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a crucial rule in the articulation of the new religion of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries, shaping its public face, artistic expressions, and the state apparatus that sustained it. The present volume brings together a collection of essays that bring new light to this crucial period of world history, with a focus on the ways in which Umayyad elites fashioned and projected their image and how these articulations, in turn, mirrored their times. These themes are approached through a wide variety of sources, from texts through art and archaeology to architecture, with new considerations of old questions and fresh material evidence that make the intersections and resonances between different fields of historical study come alive.Less

Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam

Published in print: 2018-02-22

The Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, ruled over the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the west to the Indus Valley and Central Asia in the east. They played a crucial rule in the articulation of the new religion of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries, shaping its public face, artistic expressions, and the state apparatus that sustained it. The present volume brings together a collection of essays that bring new light to this crucial period of world history, with a focus on the ways in which Umayyad elites fashioned and projected their image and how these articulations, in turn, mirrored their times. These themes are approached through a wide variety of sources, from texts through art and archaeology to architecture, with new considerations of old questions and fresh material evidence that make the intersections and resonances between different fields of historical study come alive.

This book examines the ways in which urbanization and religion intersected in pre-Columbian central Mexico, with a primary focus on the later Formative period and the transition to the Classic ...
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This book examines the ways in which urbanization and religion intersected in pre-Columbian central Mexico, with a primary focus on the later Formative period and the transition to the Classic period. The major societal transformations of this interval occurred approximately 2,000 years ago and over a millennium before Mexico’s best known early civilization, the Aztecs. The book presents a synthesis of data from regional archaeological projects and key sites such as Teotihuacan and Cuicuilco, while relying on the author’s own excavations at the site of La Laguna as the central case study. A principal argument is that cities and states developed hand in hand with elements of a religious tradition of remarkable endurance and that these processes were fundamentally entangled. Prevalent religious beliefs and ritual practices created a cultural logic for urbanism, and as populations urbanized, they became socially integrated and differentiated following this logic. Nevertheless, religion was used differently over time and by groups and individuals across the spectra of urbanity and social status. The book calls for a materially informed history of religion, with the temporal depth that archaeology can provide, and an archaeology of cities that considers religion seriously as a generative force in societal change.Less

Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico

David M. Carballo

Published in print: 2016-01-01

This book examines the ways in which urbanization and religion intersected in pre-Columbian central Mexico, with a primary focus on the later Formative period and the transition to the Classic period. The major societal transformations of this interval occurred approximately 2,000 years ago and over a millennium before Mexico’s best known early civilization, the Aztecs. The book presents a synthesis of data from regional archaeological projects and key sites such as Teotihuacan and Cuicuilco, while relying on the author’s own excavations at the site of La Laguna as the central case study. A principal argument is that cities and states developed hand in hand with elements of a religious tradition of remarkable endurance and that these processes were fundamentally entangled. Prevalent religious beliefs and ritual practices created a cultural logic for urbanism, and as populations urbanized, they became socially integrated and differentiated following this logic. Nevertheless, religion was used differently over time and by groups and individuals across the spectra of urbanity and social status. The book calls for a materially informed history of religion, with the temporal depth that archaeology can provide, and an archaeology of cities that considers religion seriously as a generative force in societal change.

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